fairy lights and a quick wreath

Posted on by
2

I’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit lately.  Over the last couple of days I’ve put up some fairy lights outside, on the porch. Not enough, but hey… its all I got what I got so I’m using them!

I had bought some fairy lights to use at the Etsy Makers Market last month so I decided it was time to make use of them. Firstly, I put the quick Christmas tree I’d made to hang my felt and lace ornaments from at the market. I put it in the grooming room to give it a bit of festive spirit. Of course, since I’m selling the ornaments, I had to find another way to decorate the tree… Use what you have I say, so I used grooming bows!

GRtree

In the house I just lit up the Christmas tree I made out of crib slats a couple of years ago. I mean, when you have perfection why mess with it? I love this tree so I’m sticking with it.

lights1

I had one more sting of lights which I’d earmarked for a wreath.

So I went looking in my shed, to find the right item as the basis for my wreath. What I found was a galvanised tray. A bit rusty in parts cause I’d had pot plants on it.

I like the rusty look.

Obviously.

My middle name is rust. Well, it could be…

All I did was wrap some wire I’ve had for a long time – no idea what you’d call it, but it looks like dried vine. Then I wrapped all 10 metres of the copper wire with lights around it as well.

I printed out a retro Christmas card for the center and its done.

For now its sitting on our sideboard in the living room. Once I figure out how to hang it and hide the battery operated controller I’ll hang it on our front door. Here it is unlit…

wreath1

And here it is lit up.

wreath2

wreath4

So pretty.

I love fairy lights. I think we should have them everywhere all year round.

I need more fairy lights…

z

 

 

wooden ruler to business card holder

Posted on by
2

bc1

Yeah, yeah. I know. I do this all the time. I get busy and I disappear from blog-land leaving my readers wondering if they should contact the authorities regarding alien abduction…

So, last you heard I was preparing for the first ever Etsy Made Local Market being held in Hobart. It was great fun but exhausting in both the lead-up (getting everything ready for the market) and the market itself.

Now its back to real life and the endless To Do list which I spend my life adding to.

Anyway, back to the market preparations… while getting all the things I needed to take with me sorted, I realised I couldn’t find my business card holder.

Nothing to do but make another one!

bc3

I’d seen a business card holder on Pinterest which was made using a ruler…

I had a ruler…

So I made a box.

bc4

Ok, its not the strongest box in the word. Its held together with PVA and hope. But its pretty. In fact, I had a lovely lady at the market ask how much it was. She was disappointment when I said it wasn’t for sale.

As you can see, I’m using it to hold my dog grooming business cards, but at the market it held my new Junk4Joy cards:

J4JBC

I had a few different things at the market – my repainted dolls, suncatcher teapots, scrappy creatures, lavender filled hearts and houses as well as random other things I’d made…

doll1dolls2dolls3dolls4stall3stall2

It was a very successful market and great fun. Now I’m preparing to do some local markets in the run up to Christmas.

After that I promise I’ll rest a bit. And finish the bathroom. And make a laundry. And rip up the carpet in the living room. And make more stuff…

sigh.

There’s no rest for the creative.

z

 

game of thrones – melisandre

Posted on by
1

melisandre1 (3)

Yes. Yes. I know. I’ve been absent, quiet, missing in action… just plain gone.

I began all these posts about my repainted dolls and then just… stopped. I have no excuse. Well, I actually have tons of excuses. I’ve been working. I’ve been flat out getting ready for the Etsy Makers Market. I’ve been tired.

So, just quickly – here is Melisandre – the Red Woman – from Game of thrones. First meet the doll who became Melisandre.

beforeafter

Then see the inspiration…

0_1

So there you have it. The Red Woman.

melisandre4

You know, sometimes I catch myself dreaming of a simpler life. One where I groom (work) and garden (my one and only hobby). What a nice dream that is… I’d have a lovely garden cause I’d spend my free time working in it and there’d be nothing pulling me this way and that, demanding my time. I’d work, then I’d rest, and I’d garden.

I can always dream, right?

Cause there ain’t no way it’ll happen in my life. I can’t help myself. I will always have things to do and things I want to do. There is almost no creative item or method I can look at and think “I want to try that”.

The saying might go “there’s no rest for the wicked” but it should say “there’s no rest for the creative”!

z

 

 

game of thrones dolls – cersei and tyrion

Posted on by
2

Linglong-High-Quality-Tailored-Any-Size-Queen-font-b-Cersei-b-font-font-b-Lannister-b

The inspiration photo above, the doll below.

cersei3

Cersei took ages to finish… The face and hair weren’t hard – I chose a look with a simple hair style so there wasn’t a lot of fiddling to do there, a simple wash and restore messy hair on a used Bratz doll.

The dress however… well that’s another story. I’m not the best at sewing so its always a challenge to make something for the first time. Mind you, it would probably help if I had proper patterns rather than making up my own!

cersei1 (2)

Next doll is Tyrion. He was great fun to make as he was a challenge… I mean, Bratz dolls don’t come in Tyrion shapes!

This is my inspiration photo.

tyrion

And this is the doll:

tyrion3

tyrion1

I had this brilliant idea to use a baby Bratz doll’s body and Bratz boy head. You can see his size relative to Sansa below:

tands

Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy repainting and restyling dolls? Pinterest and YouTube have a lot to answer for!

z

game of thrones – khaleesi

Posted on by
2

khaleesi6

I had planned to share all the Game of Thrones doll repaints in one post, but it turns out that would be too huge and photo intensive. So I’m going to combine a couple of dolls in each post till I run out of dolls.

This post is about the two Daenarys Targaryen dolls. One I’m calling Dany and the other is Khaleesi.

This is Khaleesi – the before and after pics of the Bratz doll I used as my base doll. Since I’d chosen a doll with the right colour hair and even a hairstyle that suited her, I didn’t need to do a lot of work other than repaint her.

And give her a baby dragon.

beforeandafter

This is the dress I based the doll’s costume on:

fd927a8a63b58279fda5544519c63509--daenerys-targaryen-dress-daenerys-costume

khaleesi3

Then there’s Dany, the early days, when she was in the desert, dressed in rags. Here is the inspiration photo:

d970cf4e456c8c20048183ae1ff835bc

And here is the doll. She even has her dragon eggs.

dany1 (2)

dany3 (2)

dany5

And like the real Daenarys, she has a white horse.

horse2

Both Daenarys and Khaleesi will be at the Etsy Makers Market at the end of November.

Meanwhile, I gotta get to bed. I’m so tired. A really hard day grooming, then I mowed the lawn and I think I cracked a rib doing something really stupid.

I need a rest!

z

 

 

dolls dolls dolls – tattooed barbie

Posted on by
2

psychobilly3

I’m sharing my second tattooed Barbie doll make-over. I started this girl right after I finished the first one, the pin up girl Barbie with victory rolls.

This time I went with a more traditional rockabilly look with a touch of punk.

More like me, in other words.

Or me years ago.

With huge tattoos (unlike me).

Anyway, back to the doll. This time I had the outfit sorted first. I’d bought the red leopard print trousers on ebay and wanted a doll to use them on. I made the top myself (so its not the most perfect, hehehe). Then I decapitated the doll and worked on her hair and body separately.

pinupgirlc

I made the chest tattoo first, a combination of symbols with a rockabilly theme. Then I gave her a calf tattoo that I would love. I always wanted a double bass tattoo on my ankle…

psychobilly4

She wears flat shoes, again like me, cause I was a dancer and I can barely walk in heels, let alone dance in them!

psychobilly1

Last I gave her some pretty 50’s style makeup, did her hair up in a quiff and added a bandana to hold it back.

psychobilly2

A bracelet and handbag complete the outfit. This little girl is ready to go rockin’!

I began remaking dolls using Bratz dolls into TV and movie characters and had a Barbie doll I decided to make into a pin up girl… that’s how the obsession began… I’m now in love with these rockabilly girls with their great hair and tatts.

This girl will be at the the stall I’ve got at the Etsy Makers Market in Hobart at the end of November, and will be listed in my Etsy shop when I get the time to list her.

EMpic1

Over the next few days I’ll share the other dolls I’ve finished. I don’t think I’ve shared them all… And I’ve been so busy finishing market projects I haven’t had time to work on anything else to share. Hope you don’t mind!

z

game of thrones – sansa and joffrey

Posted on by
2

sandj

Ah, the lovely couple… Sansa and Joffrey (the most disliked person on TV). I guess its a bit cruel to saddle poor Sansa with Joffrey forever by putting these dolls together, but what the hey.

This is one of the inspiration photos for Sansa:

Season-4-Episode-5-First-of-His-Name-game-of-thrones-37070107-4256-2832

And this is the doll Sansa. Her dress is inspired by the photo above but I’ve added a fur cape from another outfit.

sansa1

Joffrey… hm. This is the inspiration photo:

5301523-promo_(joffrey)_saison_4_(2)

And here is the doll. I think I captured him pretty well. He actually looks mean…

joffrey2

joffrey1

So, I have two more Game of Thrones dolls to share – a post coming up soon.

Soon as I finish the last of the current dolls.

Stay tuned.

z

princess and the pea bed

Posted on by
5

princessbed7

Its finally finished. I think I started this project about two years ago. Maybe more… nah… whatever. Ages ago.

It sat on top of the wardrobe in the office, a wire bed without a base and without mattresses… But the idea was there. A very tall bed, with a stack of mattresses, fit for a princess.

princessbed2

It was finally time to finish it. I had to put wire on the base to hold the mattresses, then I had to make the mattresses. It wasn’t difficult, just fiddly. I had scraps of fabric and batting, I made up a small pattern to fit the bed and got making.

princessbed3

princessbed6

Its a bit wonky but that’s part of the charm, its all hand made without jigs or anything.

I love working with wire, I’ve made a few beds, cups, a teapot and other stuff, but this is the first TALL bed I’ve made. What fun.

Sorry for the pics, Its really hard to photograph wire items!

z

i’m back. sort of.

Posted on by
4

Its been almost a whole month since I last wrote and a ton has happened.

First I went off to the mainland, as I do most years, to groom poodles for the big shows. This year I went to Melbourne for the Poodle National and the Royal Melbourne Show.

I stayed with my good friend Iris, and groomed silver toy poodles for her, and her grand daughter’s white standard poodle.

kismetDSCN7621sm

The gorgeous Kismet.

MishkaDSCN7687sm

The beautiful Mishka.

MystiDSCN7723sm

The elegant Mystique.

PiperDSCN7747sm

The cute Piper.

sonicDSCN7789sm

The handsome Sonic.

armani

Retired from the ring now, the stunning Armani.

I had tons of fun playing with poodles and enjoying the smell of hairspray in the morning, but it was also exhausting and hard work.

I did manage to go out one night and catch a band, a great rockabilly/hillbilly trio called The Rechords – it was great to catch up with old friends and even have a few dances.

Unfortunately I got some bug on the flight over – not surprising, an airtight tube with a heap of people in it, you’re bound to catch something! – and spent my entire 10 days there living on cold and flu tablets.

I still had it when I came home, only worse. I spent the first week home feeling I was going to die and sounding like I had kennel cough. I’m still not over it … Still coughing, still blocked ears, still going through tissues at an alarming rate.

As a result, not much has been done around here. Priorities, right? I had to groom, its my job, so I concentrated on putting all my energy into that, then I’d crash out in front of the TV (or in bed) for the rest of the day.

The house looks like its been occupied by squatters for the last year, the yard looks like the weeds staged a coup and have taken over. Well… its spring and its been raining a lot and the grass and weeds are growing like WEEDS. Today Wayne took matters into his own hands and let the horses in to do some landscaping for me. As long as they don’t eat the precious few plants that made it through winter I’m happy. At least I can see the garden beds now.

chip

I also came home to an injured dog. Montana was run over by a car and had to have surgery to put in a plate and screws. She’s on the mend now thankfully, but coming home to her in hospital was awful. It really makes it hard to go away again. Between that and getting sick every time I fly, I’m considering putting down an anchor and staying put forever…

Anyway, I hope to get back to things soon. The bathroom is still not finished, the house, well, the less said about that the better, ditto the yard… The To Do list is staggering and I’m still spending more time on the couch with Montana, just existing and recuperating.

I hope you’ll forgive me and hang in there till I’m up to creating and sharing again.

z

nothing new to share

Posted on by
2

I have no idea what happened there.

I wrote a long, very detailed, very informative, insightful and articulate blog post where I answered all sorts of questions, not least being the meaning of life itself… and I lost it.

I hit save twice. Then pressed preview and nothing came up. I repeated the process, put it down to a glitch, proofread it, tweaked it, and hit Publish instead.

That’s when it all disappeared.

I gave up in disgust.

You lose. Now you’ll never know about all the wonderful stuff I wrote about.

So here’s a consolation prize.

Weight-gain-vintage-era

z